Sqworm Construction The Serpent Website’s Sqworm © Paul Schmidt 2004 Disclaimer What’s a Sqworm? Neither The Serpent Website or the author make any A Worm is a soprano sized version of the bass Serpent, a guarantees that the following instructions are free of errors, Squarpent is a plywood, square bored ‘straight’ Serpent, so or that a resulting instrument (the “Sqworm”), will play at a Sqworm is a plywood, square bored ‘straight’ Worm. any anticipated level the builder might desire or expect. Worms and Sqworms are novelty (or, Joke) instruments, These instructions are intended to be used in conjunction but they do play. Sqworm is pronounced ‘squirm’. The with certain basic construction information as described in Sqworm has a gentle, breathy sound like a ‘mute cornetto’, The Serpent Website’s ‘Squarpent’ construction webpage and uses typical Serpent fingerings and playing techniques. and article, in order to duplicate the author’s prototype. The resulting instrument is intended to be an educational device, Materials and no promise is made regarding its suitability for performance situations. - scraps of 1/4” plywood (actually 0.2” [0.5 cm] ), with two finished/good sides, preferably exterior grade, preferably The Serpent Website’s ‘Squarpent’ article and photos may be hardwood type (Oak, etc.) used to better understand how the basic wooden pieces must - wood glue, exterior (water resistant) type, preferably gel be laid out, cut and trimmed for the ‘rabbet’ joints, as well as formulation to resist running, e.g. Elmer’s “Pro Bond how to fabricate and use jigs that could be required to Weather Resistant Wood Glue for Exterior Use” assemble the basic pieces into the square tube that is the basis - 5 minute epoxy (2-part) of the Sqworm; however, this Sqworm article provides an - trumpet / cornet mouthpiece; to match ‘authentic’ Worm overview of these steps. Refer to www.serpentwebsite.com mouthpiece as closely as possible, cup (inner) diameter should be approximately 5/8” [1.6 cm], depth of cup from rim to throat should be approximately 3/8” [1 cm], and throat diameter should be 0.14” [3.5 mm] - steel wire, for twisting twight to hold objects together during gluing (approx. 19 gauge [0.7 mm]) - cotton swabs (“Q-Tips” or similar) - polyurethane varnish Tools - electric hand drill or drill press, with two bits: 0.14” (9/64”) [3.5 mm] and 0.28” (9/32”) [7 mm] diameters - wood saw, circular or table type preferable, ‘saber’ or ‘jig’ saws or handsaws will also work - X-Acto knife or similar razor edge modeling or woodworking blade - pencil with suitable lead for marking wood - sand paper - ruler or drafting scale - tape measure - router with straight bit, for making rabbet cuts (optional; other methods may also be used to make these cuts) - wide pliers (for twisting wire tightly) - wire cutters - hacksaw with metal cutting blade - vise (optional) - small rotary tool (Dremel or similar), with small wood cutting bit (for undercutting finger holes (small ‘rat-tail’ file may also be used) the author playing the Sqworm prototype - Set of clamps (optional; tape or wire will also work) Page 1 Sqworm Construction Page 2 Sqworm Construction Initial Cuts - Cut the rabbets along the ‘A’ edge of the trapezoids, making sure to cut on the varnished side of the wood. The cuts will be ‘A’ wide and ‘B’ deep. A router works best for The bore of the Sqworm is made from a single tapered this process, but successive adjacent shallow cuts with a wooden tube with a square cross-section. Refer to the table or circular saw work well, and other methods diagram on page 2. The tube is made from four identical (including razor knife cuts) may also be used. Be careful pieces of plywood, cut in a tapered shapes and called when cutting near the small ends, as the wood is flexible trapezoids. After cutting the trapezoids from the plywood there and could bend away from the cutting bit. sheet, they need to be cut for making ‘rabbet’ type joints where they come together. - Determine the actual thickness of the plywood; this will be dimension ‘A’. Dimension ‘B’ will be half of ‘A’. - Decide which surface of the plywood has the better finish, and place it facing up on the table. Mark lines on the better side of the plywood; there will be four lines of about 25” [63.5 cm] length, drawn parallel to each other, and separated by about 1-3/8” (1.375”) [3.5 cm]. The lines will be the centerlines of the bore (indicated by the combined C & L symbol in the diagram on page 2), and will be used for several critical measurements and cuts during construction. Make sure that the lines are far enough apart to allow for the tapering width of the sections (see above). Make sure that the centerlines are accurate, straight and clearly visible. the four trapezoids after cutting them out from the plywood sheet - At a point 1” [2.5 cm] from one end of the lines, make small marks 0.07” (approx. 1/16”) [0.5 mm] to either side of the centerline. At a point 2” [5 cm] from the other end of the lines, make similar marks 0.4375” (7/16”) [11 mm] to either side of the centerline. Take a straight edge (carpenter’s or drafting type) and using the straight edge, draw lines between the small marks, continuing past the marks for the full width, to define the trapezoid shapes for all four sides of the tube. The diagonal lines define the edges of the inside of the bore. - To define the actual cut lines for the trapezoids, draw additional lines parallel to the first diagonal lines and outside the ‘bore’ lines. On one side of each trapezoid, draw the line ‘A’ (remember dimension ‘A’ from above?) distance outside the bore line; this will be for the rabbet cut. On the other side of each trapezoid, draw the line ‘B’ distance outside the bore line; this will be the ‘no varnish’ zone that will be glued into the adjacent trapezoid’s rabbet cut. Refer to the drawing on page 2 to see how the rabbet joints and cuts work out. - Cut the 4 trapezoids from the plywood, being careful to make the cuts clean and accurate. Do not allow the saw to wander; the cuts must be straight. - Varnish the unmarked side of the trapezoids. Avoid varnishing the ‘no varnish’ (B edge) zones; you will be varnishing the unmarked side, so the work does not need to the four trapezoids after rabbet cuts have been be precise; it is better to get some varnish in the ‘no var- made, see trumpet mouthpiece for scale nish’ zone than to leave part of the wood unprotected. Page 3 Sqworm Construction tube with the clamps, tape or wire. Move along the tube to the middle, doing likewise, then finally secure the other end. Quickly wipe any excess glue that is coming out of the rabbet joints. Continue to secure the tube, now at points in between the first three points, until the tube is firmly clamped or otherwise secured about every inch and a half [3.5 cm]. Wipe excess glue from the outside of the tube, then wipe excess from the inside at the large end, using a cotton swab. The bore at the small end will be too small to clear of excess glue, but this area will be trimmed and drilled out later. Allow the glue to set for several hours (e.g. overnight). closeup of rabbet cuts in trapezoids Forming the Tube With the Sqworm, assembling the tube is much simpler than with the larger square instruments like the Squarpent or Box-O-Cleide. The trapezoids are much stiffer relative to their length because the ratio of their size to their thickness is more advantageous. Accordingly, there is no need to make or use jigs or blocks. Test fit the four trapezoids to make sure that they will match up correctly at the rabbet joints (see drawings on page 2). Lay all four on a table, parallel to each other and tube gluing with clamps (above), glued pointing in the same direction. Place a small bead of wood tube after clamp removal (below) glue in the rabbet grove of each trapezoid, trying to make the bead about half as wide as dimension ‘A’ of the cut, and position it close to the edge of the cut where the wood resumes full width. The objective is to have the right amount of glue, and have it located so that when the two pieces of wood are joined at the rabbet, the glue will have an equal area to squeeze into in either direction (without being forced from the joint into the bore or out of the tube). Treating the trapezoid second closest to you as the base, rotate the adjacent trapezoids to vertical and joint them at the rabbets; they do not need to (and will not) fit perfectly at this stage. Before they can fall over, lift the fourth trapezoid, flip it over glue side down, and lay it in the top edges of the vertical trapezoids, forming a rough tube. Use pieces of masking, drafting or office (e.g. Scotch) tape around the tube at each end, temporarily secure the pieces so that you can let go of them for a few moments without having them fall apart. It might be useful to place the handle of a screwdriver or similar tool inside the large end of the tube to keep the trapezoids from falling inwards.